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Sep
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
President’s Corner 1
Upcoming Luncheon 2
Note from the editor 5
Cover Story 7
Word on the Street 10
Advertisers 12
Contact List 14
Membership Application 15
October SGS Luncheon
Thursday
October 15th 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Holiday Inn Bayou Ballroom (8th floor)
330 Loyola Ave.
$30.00 pp. (member) $35.00 pp. (non-member)
RSVP Louis Sturgess
Geological Corner: Half Dome at Yosemite National Park
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President’s
Corner
by Robin
Broussard
We have two big upcoming events this
month: the SEG International Exposition &
85th Annual Meeting in New Orleans and
the Children's Museum fundraiser "Party
with a Purpose". Please read Reflections or
go to our website for more details. I hope to
see a huge turnout from the local
geophysical community at both events.
Robin Broussard
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October Luncheon Shell 1970’s “Bright Spot” Prospects, mid 1980’s Deep Water Discoveries, and Learnings from
a 15 year Industry DHI Consortium
by Mike Forrest
This talk will review Shell Oil Company exploration history in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Shelf
and Deep Water using “Bright Spot” technology in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Most of the data has
been published but I will add color by discussing background information and including
anecdotes. The final part of the talk is a brief summary and learnings of the Rose & Associates
DHI (Direct Hydrocarbon Indicator) Interpretation and Risk Analysis Consortium which has
been active in Houston and Europe during the past 15 years.
The “Bright Spot” story began with an observation and mapping of a strong seismic reflection at
a depth of 3000 feet on the crest of a low-relief structure in Main Pass area, offshore Louisiana
during 1967. Two exploration wells penetrated the shallow reflections and found gas pays with
very low sonic log velocity that resulted in a strong “soft” reflection. Years later the prospect
was developed as a 300 BCF gas field.
During 1968 and early 1969, strong reflections which conformed to structural closure were
observed on prospects in the offshore Texas and Louisiana Pleistocene trend where no
calibration wells were available. The term “Bright Spot” was coined during informal discussions
among Shell geophysicists. At that time, seismic was primarily used to map geologic structure
and many Shell geoscientists doubted the relationship of “Bright Spots” to gas/oil pays. During
early 1969, six oil and gas fields in the offshore Louisiana Pliocene trend were studied and
“bright spots” were correlated with gas and oil sands with a low sonic log velocity and/or low
density. Shell management formed an operations/research team to study seismic amplitude
changes related to gas and oil pays.
The first significant application of “Bright Spot” technology by Shell was at the 1970 GOM
lease sale when prospect economics was primarily based on “Bright Spot” areas, thicknesses and
probability analysis. Geophysicists predicted the area and thickness of a gas sand and mapped
other oil and gas pays on Eugene Island Block 331 (150 MMBOE), part of the 750 MMBOE
Eugene Island Block 330 Field. During 1972, Shell predicted oil pays in the discovery of South
Marsh Island 130 Field (300 MMBOE) – Figure 1. Many other discoveries followed, especially
Cognac (300 MMBOE) in 1000 feet water.
Lessons from Shell “Bright Spot” studies and successes/failures are:
Good ideas can come from operations people.
New ideas require persistence. “Beware of the skeptics.”
In hindsight, good ideas are very often simple and easy to understand.
If technical staff and management agree on application of new technology, “go for it.”
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The area wide lease concept was initiated in 1983 and 1984 and Shell acquired leases on
Prospects Bullwinkle, Powell and Tahoe plus several leads, including Prospect Auger. All the
these prospects are well known oil and gas fields today and each have lessons that changed
Shell’s exploration and development “thinking” in future years. In 1985, Shell acquired leases,
mostly unopposed, on prospects and leads in water depths out to 6000 feet. “Bright Spots”
ranging from excellent to speculative were observed on all the prospect/leads but only Prospect
Mensa was “drill- ready” at the time and was a 900 BCF gas discovery.
The Prospect Mars “story” could be a talk in itself. The leases were acquired in 1985 in a last
minute decision to bid on a lead that was considered high risk along with other spec prospects.
Prospect Mars was drilled in late 1988/early 1989 after a round of technical, budget and
management discussions (personal communication with Shell staff in the Offshore Division at
the time). The initial well logged 400 NFO in several sands and the field is 1+ BBO.
The DHI Consortium started in 2001 with 12 oil companies in Houston to build a work process
(Excel software) to document risk analysis of DHI prospects for all four AVO Gas Sand Classes.
More than 60 oil companies have been members of the Consortium during the past 15 years and
current membership is 12 companies in Houston and 19 companies in Europe. The database has
265 drilled DHI prospects worldwide most of which were risked by the Consortium members
and reviewed for consistency by the Consortium leadership before learning the drilling result and
added to the database.
Several lessons from the database study will be reviewed including understanding the geology,
the importance of seismic and rock physics data quality, the most significant DHI anomaly
characteristics and the DHI threshold concept.
Speaker Biography:
Mike Forrest is an Exploration Consultant who had a 37 year career with Shell Oil as a
geophysicist and executive including General Manager Exploration for Gulf of Mexico during
the mid 80’s when Shell expanded exploration into deep water, and President of Pecten
International Company, a Shell US E & P subsidiary. After retiring in 1992, he worked with
Maxus Energy for five years, first as COO and later as VP Business Development and
Technology after YPF purchased the company. Since 2001, Mike has been Chairman of the Rose
& Associates DHI (Direct Hydrocarbon Indicator) Risk Analysis Consortium that currently has
31 oil company members in Houston and Europe.
Mike is a Life Member of the SEG, a Trustee Associate, and is currently Chairman of the SEG
Foundation which does fund raising to support 16 SEG programs, mostly for students and early
career geophysicists. He is also a Trustee Associate with AAPG Foundation and is an Emeritus
Member of the American Geosciences Institute (AGI). Mike has a BS degree in Geophysical
Engineering from St. Louis University (1955).
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Photo Wall
Here are photos from the GoM deepwater technical symposium
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Cover Story – Half Dome at Yosemite
Yosemite is a glaciated landscape, and the scenery that resulted from the interaction of the
glaciers and the underlying rocks was the basis for its preservation as a national park. Iconic
landmarks such as Yosemite Valley, Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite Falls, Vernal and Nevada Falls,
Bridalveil Fall, Half Dome, the Clark Range, and the Cathedral Range are known throughout the
world. Landforms that are the result of glaciation include U-shaped canyons, jagged peaks,
rounded domes, waterfalls, and moraines. Glacially-polished granite is further evidence of
glaciation, and is common in Yosemite National Park.
Half Dome is a granite dome at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National
Park, California. It is possibly Yosemite's most familiar rock formation. The granite crest rises
more than 4,737 ft (1,444 m) above the valley floor.
Half Dome, like the other granite exposures in Yosemite, formed from intrusions of magma—
molten rock—that solidified underground to form massive granite bodies. This happened
repeatedly mostly during the Cretaceous period; the source of the magma was the Pacific
tectonic plate, which was being overridden by the North American plate and forced downward at
its leading edge to the melting point.
Later, as overlying rocks were eroded away, the intrusive granite was revealed at the surface and
eventually uplifted in the mountain-building episode that formed the modern Sierra Nevada.
While volcanic rocks are scattered throughout the range, the Sierra core is tough, widely jointed,
beautifully pale granite. Weathering (such as freeze-thaw action) along joints in the Half Dome
mass is mostly responsible for the peak’s contours today. The rounded crown of Half Dome
probably stems from exfoliation.
More than once, Pleistocene glaciers spilled down the west-side Sierra river drainages from the
range’s crest, with their relentless scraping turning sharp, stream-cut canyons into broad, U-
shaped valleys. The bulk of the work was accomplished by the huge Sherwin glacier, which
nearly filled Yosemite Valley—but Half Dome’s crest, along with the other highest points,
remained above the ice.
Panaroma of Half Dome
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45th ANNUAL NEW ORLEANS GEM, MINERAL,
FOSSIL & JEWELRY SHOW – 2015
BEST WESTERN LANDMARK HOTEL
2601 SEVERN AVENUE, METAIRIE, LA 70002
FOR SHOW INFORMATION, CALL LEVETTE CARLOS @ (504) 214-3205
OR E-MAIL [email protected]
SUNDAY
OCT. 18
FRIDAY
OCT. 16 10 AM TO 6 PM
SATURDAY
OCT. 17
PRECIOUS GEMSTONES, MINERALS,
FOSSILS, BEADS, & JEWELRY!
DEMONSTRATIONS of JEWELRY MAKING &
CAB CUTTING!
DISPLAYS of FLUORESCENT MINERALS and
DINOSAUR BONES!
KID'S - FREE ROCK GRAB BAGS &
TEACHING CABOCHON CUTTING!
WEEK-END ADMISSION - ALL 3 DAYS
Adults - $ 6 Kids Under 12 FREE
Students w/ID, Military w/ID & Members $ 3 Scouts in Uniform FREE
SPECIAL DISCOUNT COUPON
$1.00 OFF ADULT Admission
(PLEASE PRINT)
NAME________________________________________________________
STREET______________________________________________________
CITY/ST/ZIP___________________________________________________
12
Word on the Street
This section is a collection of recent headlines that are related to activities in our backyard that
we would like to bring to your attention.
Latest headlines from Offshore-Mag:
[http://www.offshore-mag.com/subsea/us-gulf-of-mexico.html]
Technip secures another subsea contract for the Stones development in the GoM
Shell orders Appomattox umbilicals from Oceaneering
ConocoPhillips, ION Geophysical and Aker Solutions have each confirmed significant
work force reductions in the midst of continued market downturn
US announces $20 billion resolution with BP over 2010 oil spill
Crude oil prices rose above $50/bbl for the first time since July on speculation that
demand is picking up
Latest headlines from RIGZONE:
[https://www.rigzone.com/news/region.asp?r_id=1&c_id=&lxd=365]
Pemex workers return to GoM platform after gas leak
EMAS AMC completes 2 subsea tieback projects for Noble Energy in the US GoM
UK subsea firms head to Mexico
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Memorial
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Information for Advertisers: 2014-2015
Benefits:
Support the geophysical community and geophysics in southeastern Louisiana
Exposure to major oil companies and independents working onshore as well at the Gulf of Mexico
Advertisements are published monthly (September-May) in the society newsletter.
Advertisements to be published in the membership directory
Logos for full page advertisers are displayed on the SGS website along with a link to the advertisers’ own websites
Rates:
Full Page: $1800.00 7.5” X 10”
Half Page: $900.00 7.5” X 5” or 3.75” X 10”
Quarter Page: $500.00 3.5” X 5” or 7.5” X 2.5”
Business Card: $200.00 3.5” X 2”
List of Advertisers
SGS would like to thank the following advertisers for their support
15
Contact List
P.O. Box 57141
New Orleans, LA 70157
www.sgs-neworleans.org Web address:
SGS Executive CommitteePresident: Robin Broussard
Shell Tel: (504) 425-7437
1st
Vice President: Scott Glassman
Chevron Tel: (985) 773-6385
2nd
Vice President: Louis Sturgess
Shell Tel: (504) 425-7636
Secretary: Pamela Bucher
Shell Tel: (504) 425-3417
Treasurer: Erik Everson
Chevron
Editor : Ruel Jerry
Shell Tel: (504) 425-8864
Webmaster: Leanne Hao
Shell Tel: (504) 425-4356
Past President: Toby Roesler
Stone Energy Tel: (504) 425-4086
Prior Past President: Julius Doruelo
Shell Tel: (504) 425-4086
SGS Outreach Officer: Lisa Dwyer Kennedy
BOEM Tel: (504) 736-2794
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Membership Application
June 1, 2015 – May 31 2016
